Deputy drives after drinking, flips BSO vehicle, report says

April 26, 2013|By Ariel Barkhurst, Sun Sentinel

Broward Sheriff's Office Deputy Peter Sepot, 26, was ordered suspended for 20 days without pay last month for driving after drinking and then crashing an unmarked patrol car, according to an Internal Affairs report.

Sepot was not arrested in the Feb. 6 incident, the report said, because he passed two of three field sobriety tests admissible in court. He failed a fourth test that is not admissible but later admitted to having been drinking, the report stated.

Sepot, a Pompano Beach canine officer, has a clean driving record, with only a speeding ticket in 2012. He has no criminal history. He declined to comment on the case.

He's been with the Sheriff's Office for seven years and faced disciplinary action once before, for getting into a "preventable accident" while on duty in 2009. He received counseling and driver's training.

Sepot has not served his 20 days of suspension because he can appeal the decision, the Sheriff's Office said.

In the February accident, the report said, Sepot was drinking with his brother, Margate police officer Michael Sepot, when they both got into the unmarked Sheriff's Office vehicle in the early morning hours.

He was going about 35 mph, exiting Interstate 595 to State Road 7 in Davie, when he lost control of the car, skidded into the swale, and flipped over twice to land upright, a traffic investigator found. Neither brother was hurt and they didn't hit any other cars.

The road was wet, and that may have made it easier to lose control of the car, the traffic investigator said in the report.

Sepot was given the tests after Davie police and Sheriff's Office officers called to the crash noticed he smelled like alcohol, his "movements were deliberate," he had glassy, bloodshot eyes and a flush face, and he swayed.

"Deputy Sepot stated that he should have used better judgment and is remorseful for the entire incident," wrote Col. John Dale of the Sheriff's Office Department of Professional Standards. "Sepot stated that he has taken the steps necessary to receive assistance and counseling."

He has arranged for "counseling for alcohol abuse," the report stated.

Sepot violated four Sheriff's Office policies, including prohibitions against drunk driving and having passengers in Sheriff's Office vehicles. He was also found to have engaged in "conduct unbecoming an employee."